AGORA FINANCIAL - BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY ALERT
(received via pdf from PVCT)
"August 27, 2013
Study Shows Provectus' Compound Makes Cancer "Dye"
The Moffitt Cancer Center just announced that a clinical trial of Provectus Pharmaceuticals' (OTCBB: PVCT) anti-tumor compound PV-10 is underway in breast cancer. That's great news, but there's more. The center's researchers also report excellent preclinical results in mouse cancer models. Results were recently published in the open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS ONE.
PV-10 itself is derived from Rose Bengal, a dye that was first synthesized in 1882. Originally popular as a deep rose-colored fabric dye, it is also a selective killer of tumor cells. It shows a strong affinity for these mutated cells, where it causes acid-bearing subunits called lysosomes to release their cell-killing contents. In the study, however, researchers noted that injecting PV-10 into a tumor lesion not only shrank the injected lesion, but also caused an effect in uninjected metastases in other parts of the body.
In destroying the cells in one tumor, the immune system becomes aware of the cancer threat in other parts of the body. A likely explanation for this mechanism is that rupturing tumors in one part of the body exposes the immune system to cancer-specific antigens. Trained in this fashion, immune cells can more effectively combat tumors located elsewhere. The Moffitt Cancer Center issued a press release related for this study titled "Single Injection May Revolutionize Melanoma Treatment." According to Shari Pilon-Thomas, Ph.D., assistant member of Moffitt's Immunology Program, "Various injection therapies for melanoma have been examined over the past 40 years, but few have shown the promising results we are seeing with PV-10." I'd like to point out that PV-10 has completed Phase 2 trials in melanoma, and preparations for a Phase 3 melanoma study are underway. Furthermore, the compound has received the FDA's Orphan Drug designation for melanoma. In Provectus, we have a company with a market capitalization of a mere $83 million and a share price of 65 cents gearing to enter late-stage clinical trials for a common type of cancer. It seems clear to me it has the potential to produce huge gains for its investors." |
